Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Engaging the Appalachian Community: Developing a University-Community Partnership with the Wilderness Road Regional Museum
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This presentation describes a dynamic university-community partnership between Radford University and the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, a small regional non-profit, all-volunteer museum dedicated to preserving the regional history of the New River Valley, in Appalachian Virginia. The presentation focuses on how this project applied a Community-Based Research (CBR) agenda and methodology, with its emphasis on university-community collaborative engagement, over a four-year period. The project started by assisting the museum in conducting needs assessments, followed by successive stages in which students and community volunteers worked collaboratively to identify and apply museum best practices tailored to meet the needs of this small museum. Students and volunteers collaboratively engaged in a wide range of activities including development of collection cataloging, heritage interpretation and exhibition, educational programming, and enhancing public outreach and promotion. Our presentation will discuss how and why this community-based approach worked effectively to energize and empower the museum volunteer staff during the four years. At the same time, it greatly enhanced the student educational experience, as two classes and multiple interns engaged on a collaborative basis, hand-in-hand with community members, in joint problem-solving efforts. Our hope is that this demonstration of the power of a CBR approach, evidenced through this case study, will inspire the audience and promote dialog about other applications of community-based partnerships at the grassroots level for Appalachian regional development.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Mary LaLone is a cultural anthropologist and Professor in the Sociology Department at Radford University. She has been directing university-community partnerships with community heritage groups in southwest Virginia since the early 1990s, and has written extensively about the importance of taking a community-based participatory approach in Appalachian community development (http://mlalone.asp.radford.edu/Publications.html). Currently she is a consultant for the New River Historical Society, working with them in planning for the Wilderness Road Regional Museum.
Presentation #2 Title
Engaging the Appalachian Community: Developing a University-Community Partnership with the Wilderness Road Regional Museum
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
This presentation describes a dynamic university-community partnership between Radford University and the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, a small regional non-profit, all-volunteer museum dedicated to preserving the regional history of the New River Valley, in Appalachian Virginia. The presentation focuses on how this project applied a Community-Based Research (CBR) agenda and methodology, with its emphasis on university-community collaborative engagement, over a four-year period. The project started by assisting the museum in conducting needs assessments, followed by successive stages in which students and community volunteers worked collaboratively to identify and apply museum best practices tailored to meet the needs of this small museum. Students and volunteers collaboratively engaged in a wide range of activities including development of collection cataloging, heritage interpretation and exhibition, educational programming, and enhancing public outreach and promotion. Our presentation will discuss how and why this community-based approach worked effectively to energize and empower the museum volunteer staff during the four years. At the same time, it greatly enhanced the student educational experience, as two classes and multiple interns engaged on a collaborative basis, hand-in-hand with community members, in joint problem-solving efforts. Our hope is that this demonstration of the power of a CBR approach, evidenced through this case study, will inspire the audience and promote dialog about other applications of community-based partnerships at the grassroots level for Appalachian regional development.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Carolyn Mathews serves on the Board of Directors of the New River Historical Society, which owns and operates the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern, Virginia. She received her MA and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, specializing in American literature and composition and rhetoric. A member of the English Department at Radford University, she teaches courses for future educators and supervises teacher candidates in their early field experience and student teaching.
Engaging the Appalachian Community: Developing a University-Community Partnership with the Wilderness Road Regional Museum
This presentation describes a dynamic university-community partnership between Radford University and the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, a small regional non-profit, all-volunteer museum dedicated to preserving the regional history of the New River Valley, in Appalachian Virginia. The presentation focuses on how this project applied a Community-Based Research (CBR) agenda and methodology, with its emphasis on university-community collaborative engagement, over a four-year period. The project started by assisting the museum in conducting needs assessments, followed by successive stages in which students and community volunteers worked collaboratively to identify and apply museum best practices tailored to meet the needs of this small museum. Students and volunteers collaboratively engaged in a wide range of activities including development of collection cataloging, heritage interpretation and exhibition, educational programming, and enhancing public outreach and promotion. Our presentation will discuss how and why this community-based approach worked effectively to energize and empower the museum volunteer staff during the four years. At the same time, it greatly enhanced the student educational experience, as two classes and multiple interns engaged on a collaborative basis, hand-in-hand with community members, in joint problem-solving efforts. Our hope is that this demonstration of the power of a CBR approach, evidenced through this case study, will inspire the audience and promote dialog about other applications of community-based partnerships at the grassroots level for Appalachian regional development.
